Bill Text: SC H4120 | 2021-2022 | 124th General Assembly | Introduced
Bill Title: Norma Sue Pitts honor memory
Spectrum: Slight Partisan Bill (Republican 81-43)
Status: (Passed) 2021-04-06 - Introduced and adopted [H4120 Detail]
Download: South_Carolina-2021-H4120-Introduced.html
A HOUSE RESOLUTION
TO RECOGNIZE AND HONOR THE SPARTANBURG SOUTHSIDE HERITAGE COMMITTEE AS IT CELEBRATES WOMEN'S HISTORY MONTH BY REMEMBERING THE LIFE OF NORMA SUE PITTS AND OTHER SIGNIFICANT WOMEN WHO IMPACTED THE SPARTANBURG SOUTHSIDE COMMUNITY.
Whereas, the Spartanburg Southside Heritage Committee will honor several women whose contributions earned them recognition in the Spartanburg community and whose names have graced apartments and housing complexes there on Friday, March 26, 2021, in Spartanburg as the culmination of Women's History Month; and
Whereas, Spartanburg Southside Heritage Committee was cofounded by the late Norma Sue Pitts, who died February 1, 2021, and left to cherish her memory ten children, thirty-four grandchildren, forty-nine great-grandchildren, and three great-great-grandchildren. She established the committee to keep the rich legacy of the community, created by the significant contributions to history, culture, and society, alive in the minds of the citizens of Spartanburg; and
Whereas, Louvenia Delores Barksdale, an educator and a community leader in Spartanburg, began a career that spanned thirty-seven years as an English teacher at Carver and Spartanburg high schools in 1938. In 1974, she launched a Sickle Cell Anemia Program in the upper Piedmont area, serving as its executive director, and in 1982, the organization was named the L. D. Barksdale Sickle Cell Anemia Foundation, Inc. The same year, Spartanburg Housing Authority named apartments on Pierpont Avenue in her honor; and
Whereas, Victoria Stone Brown, who lived to the age of 101 years, cared deeply for her family and set an example as a pillar and a mother of the community, residing for some fifty years at 175 Aden Street in the white three-bedroom house graced by a large pecan tree and her many flowers, so lovingly tended. In her memory the recently renovated Northside Apartments, complete with computer lab and other features, was renamed Victoria Gardens in her honor. Eleven of the houses have been completed, not as rental properties, but dedicated for home ownership; and
Whereas, a home economist for the Clemson University Extension and teacher in the public school system for forty-four years, Cammie Fludd Clagett actively advocated for lower-income residents as one of Spartanburg's forerunners for civil rights, improved housing conditions, neighborhood cleanliness and improvement, and citizen involvement. She was a member of Piedmont Community Action and the first black person appointed to a citizen's advisory board in Spartanburg. She died in 1991 at the age of eighty-seven, and Cammie Clagett Courts was named in her honor; and
Whereas, born around 1860, Phyllis Goins, the daughter of Thomas N. Pickenspack, a slave from the Ivory Coast, became a nurse and midwife to more than four hundred infants in Spartanburg, and the Spartanburg Herald described her in 1914 as the best-known black nurse in the city. On August 31, 1950, the Spartanburg Housing Authority named apartments in her honor, homes which were rebuilt through Hope Six and renamed Collins Park; and
Whereas, Dr. Ellen Carter Watson was an educator in Spartanburg County School District 7 for forty-two years, who demanded excellence from her students and inspired them to pursue challenging careers in medicine, law, and business. She also served on the mayor's Committee on Human Relations, which paved a smooth transition for integration in Spartanburg. In 1982, Spartanburg Housing Authority named apartments on Textile Drive in her honor; and
Whereas, the South Carolina House of Representatives appreciates the work of the Spartanburg Southside Heritage Committee for keeping the memory alive of so many citizens who championed causes that have improved the lives of countless members of their community. Now, therefore,
Be it resolved by the House of Representatives:
That the members of the South Carolina House of Representatives, by this resolution, recognize and honor the Spartanburg Southside Heritage Committee as it celebrates Women's History Month by remembering the life of Norma Sue Pitts and other significant women who impacted the Spartanburg Southside community.
